The Best Of Patience
Artist: Patience & Prudence Date Released: 2004 Label: Collector's Choice Produced By: Mark McIntyre Tracklisting: # Tonight You Belong To Me # A Smile And A Ribbon # Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now # The Money Tree # We Can't Sing Rhythm And Blues # Dreamer's Bay # You Tattletale # Very Nice Is Bali Bali # Witchcraft # Over Here # Heavenly Angel # Little Wheel # All I Do Is Dream Of You # Your Careless Love # Tom Thumb's Tune # Golly Oh Gee # Should I # Whisper Whisper # Didn't I # Apples On The Lilac Tree # Tonight You Belong To Me # How Can I Tell Him # A Smile And A Ribbon # Tonight You Belong To Me Review The title to this release is a little bit of a misnomer; I suppose, yes, it is the best of Patience & Prudence, but by that token, it's also the worst of Patience & Prudence and the most mediocre of Patience & Prudence -- this disc contains everything the duo ever recorded. Why they didn't call it "The Complete Patience & Prudence"? I don't know—perhaps "Best" just catches people's ears more than "Complete" does. Even with containing all their singles (see their artist page for a breakdown) and a couple unreleased versions of songs (they never had an album aside from this release—not even any other LP compilation), it doesn't even break 50 minutes. So, how is it? It's actually very good. Patience & Prudence, in the mid 1950s were considered one-hit wonders; it's only recently when a couple of their songs have shown up in the films Election and Ghost World that interest was revived in the duo. They're still relatively obscure, but there was enough interest for Collector's Choice to press up a bunch of these discs. For some, this disc might not be much more than a curiosity of a footnote of pop music, but it's actually pretty interesting. Their biggest hit (and one of their strongest songs) "Tonight You Belong To Me" shows up a few times, as they re-recorded it throughout their career—though the 1964 version didn't do well, despite the more modern arrangement. Other songs on here are very strong as well (I'm partial to "A Smile And A Ribbon", "Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now", and "Apples On The Lilac Tree"), though there are some misfires (the semi-novelty, though with weird undertones, "We Can't Sing Rhythm & Blues" and the strangely racist in that charming 1950s naive way, "Very Nice Is Bali Bali"). It's a bit unfair that Patience & Prudence were forgotten—after all, they were the act that saved Liberty Records from bankruptcy, the inspiration for Ross Bagdasarian to speed vocals up for "The Wtich Doctor" and the folks Brian Wilson nicked the arrangement of "Tonight You Belong To Me" from when he produced The Honeys' version -- but they were very much a victim of changing styles, and their sound was on the way out when they'd had their big hit. Like I said, this is an interesting piece of pop history, but it's also a collection of great singles, too. - Rev. Syung Myung Me Category:Albums